In the Midst of Chaos
by kaz456
Summary: A short and sweet lil CJ fic, but not extremely romantic. Anyways, it's okay to read even if you're not a CJ fan. I mean, I wrote it, and I'm not a CJ lover!


A/N: Okay, I admit it, I'm not a big fan of Cassie and Jake. Really, I like Tobias and Rachel much better. But somehow, this idea jumped into my head, and wouldn't leave me alone until I had agreed to write it down and submit it. So anyway, it's from Cassie's point of view. It's not enough to fill the romance meter all the way up, but it'll do. So enjoy, and review at the end!  
  
Disclaimer: No, tis not the mighty Applegate, tis simply a lowly writer of fan-fictions.  
  
I looked up and sighed. The sun was just beginning to set, causing the sky to become faintly streaked with pink and yellow and orange and blue. The air was crisp and cool, one of my favorite types of weather. But that wasn't enough to cheer me up today.  
  
Yesterday had been another battle. It hadn't been too good. Well, most of them were never good, considering all the things and lives that we had ended, but it had been even worse than usual. I wasn't sure what had made it so horrible. Maybe it had been the way everyone had seemed so tired, and so old after it.  
  
We were all kids. Marco, Rachel, Tobias, Ax, Jake, and me. We were just kids, kids who had been deprived of some of our childhood. We had all had the normalcy in our lives taken away.  
  
The normalcy. That was what I was missing right now.  
  
I sighed again and sat down outside the barn. Sometimes I just liked to sit out here, and think. When I was little, I would sit here and pretend that I was part of nature, part of the flow of the world that could not and would not ever be disturbed. That was back when things were normal.  
  
I missed normal. For a moment, I thought about the other Animorphs. I wondered if they ever wished that they could go back to before we had been given the power of the morphing cube. Was I just acting cowardly by wishing it had never happened?  
  
As usual, when I thought about normalcy, my thoughts strayed to Jake.  
  
Jake, the leader of the Animorphs. Responsible, big, even cute, Jake.  
  
I thought about my relationship with him. It was anything but normal. Not as strange as Tobias' and Rachel's, but strange enough. We spent most of our time together either fighting aliens or making plans and developing ideas about how to fight them. We didn't have what most would consider a "typical relationship."  
  
Then again, I mused to myself, even without this war our relationship wouldn't be typical. I think that deep down, we had always cared for each other, but we had just been too afraid to actually voice our feelings out loud.  
  
Now, I found myself wishing that we could do something together, something normal, where nothing would go wrong.  
  
I imagined Jake and me going to the movies together. I imagined us laughing and having a good time, not thinking of anything but each other. Or maybe just doing something simple, like going to the beach, hanging out with each other, maybe even daring to hold hands. Doing stuff that ordinary couples do.  
  
Then I imagined kissing Jake. Not just a thank-goodness-you're-alive-and-we- survived kiss, but a regular good-night kiss. When was the last time that we had kissed just because the moment called for it?  
  
Never, I thought to myself. We had never kissed, just for the sake of...well, just for the sake of kissing.  
  
I loved Jake. And not just puppy love. It felt...deeper than that. I loved him as in I cared about him and what happened to him. As in I would do anything, just to make sure that he was okay. I cared about him more than anyone else, with the exception of my parents.  
  
And, I knew that he loved me too, in the same way. It was a thing that we both knew, but for some reason, we had never actually said it out loud.  
  
The sound of footsteps approaching interrupted my thoughts. I looked up to see Jake standing in front of me, hands jammed in his pockets, a nervous smile on his face. I stood up to face him, and smiled back at him.  
  
"Hey, Cassie," he said.  
  
"Hi, Jake," I said in response. "What are you doing here?" I asked, curious to why he should appear right when I was thinking about him.  
  
"Well, I..." He shifted uncomfortably, than looked as if he was forcing himself to continue. "I wanted to check on you, after last night. Um, to see how you were doing. And, uh, to maybe see if you wanted to do anything. With me. If you want to." He stammered.  
  
I stood there, staring at him, a surprised look on my face. This had been what I was just thinking about! Jake was actually asking me out. We could go and be normal for one night, and do the stuff that normal couples would do.  
  
"Cassie?" Jake asked me, a hopeful look still in his eyes. "We don't have to, if you don't want to... I mean, its okay-"  
  
"No, Jake..." I started to say, than stopped. It suddenly hit me. I was talking to Jake, my good friend and leader of the Animorphs. Like it or not, we weren't normal. And we couldn't be.  
  
We couldn't just go out and have everything be different, because that wasn't how life was. It just wasn't possible for us. And maybe...maybe, that was a good thing. Because, maybe, if we had been just an ordinary, standard, couple, we wouldn't have the bond, or the connection, that we had now.  
  
I looked at Jake again. True, he was my fellow comrade in this war, and largely responsible for most of the damage done against the Yeerks, but he was also a nervous teenager. A nervous teenager who I loved.  
  
"No, Jake," I continued with what I had been about to say. "No, I don't think I want to go out."  
  
His face sagged. "Oh, okay-" He started to say, crestfallen.  
  
"But," I interrupted him. "Do you think that maybe we could hang out together, right here?"  
  
He looked up at me again. A slow smile spread across his face. "Sure, Cassie," He said. "It doesn't matter as long as I'm with you."  
  
We both sat down again, two abnormal teenagers enjoying each other's company under a calm sky, together in the midst of chaos.  
  
Just the way I liked it. 


End file.
